The April 2025 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable will take place on April 9, 2025 beginning at 6:00 p.m. This will be an in-person meeting. The speaker will be Judge William F.B. Vodrey, and the title of William’s presentation is “Lincoln’s Lawyers.”

Abraham Lincoln, a talented trial lawyer himself before his 1860 election to the Presidency, named two very different men to advise him as Attorney General of the United States: Edward Bates and James Speed. This presentation will discuss their service in the Lincoln Cabinet and will also examine how these two men differed from each other in their opinions regarding racial equality and how their opinions interfaced with that of Lincoln.

William Vodrey is a past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable and a member of the American Battlefield Trust as well as the Blue and Gray Education Society. William has given numerous presentations to…